hate that i love you

-. august 14; 1995 .-

It's 07:30 in the morning.
I stepped out of the school bus and slowly walked onto the school yard.
I can't believe it. It's my last year. I sigh nervously and fiddle with the three rings I have on each hand. Looking down on me, I checked on my clothes. My white oversized blouse is tucked into my light blue washed boyfriend jeans. My white Converse also tied.

My breath hitched when I felt someone grab my messy bun.

"Hey, Jazz. You allright?"

I look up to my best friend, Connor Lachance. He is my anchor, you know.
Without the 5'11" tall guy with dirty blonde hair, blue eyes, freckles, and trained chest, I would be, like, completely lost.

I smiled up to him, and we went to the building of Nevada Union High School. The big doors were already open, while the masses of students rushed to their spints and the teachers into the classrooms.

Connor and I have been friends since middle school. First, he was friends with my brother Joseph.
Speaking of the devil, there he was: flirting with some popular girls. He himself was pretty popular, too. I guess that's the reason why my brother and Connor aren't talking to each other anymore.
I asked both. And both were telling me:

"Just let it go, Jazz. We had a disagreement, that's all."

And I always replied:

"Yeah. But if it's just a disagreement, why don't you just talk it out?"

I've never gotten an answer to it.

"Sister, we got to go to class." Connor waved his right hand in front of my face to get me out of my trance.

I smiled shyly up to him and turned to go to the classroom.

The class huddled together and searched for available seats. The teacher just sat there and looked at the names of the students.

I was fiddling with my rings again as I heard all the stories of the other students. They were laughing as they talked about the summer holidays and the adventures they experienced with family and friends.

I slowly put my books out but shrieked and let them fall as I heard the door swung open and a girl came in.
I don't know why, but it was like everything slowed down. When I looked at her, I was just mesmerized.
She was definitely taller than me. Her hair was short and styled like the boys here at this school, but she didn't seem to care. In fact, she seemed very self-confident.
Her style was pretty much punk, I guess. She had an oversized leather jacket.

"Boy, that's a gorgeous jacket." Connor swooned and laid his head on his hand.

I looked back at her and swallowed thickly as she looked back at me.

"Would you like to introduce yourself?"
The teacher asked.

"Hi. My name is Winona. Winona Vernice and I'm new from Santa Cruz, California." She waved, smirked slightly as she saw me staring at her.

She winked fast to me, and my breath hitched. I don't know why I'm reacting so much.

"Thank you, Miss Vernice. Please take a seat." The teacher pointed at the seat in the line in front of mine, just at the wall. Perfectly to see each other, she sat down, stroke through her hair, and smirked lightly at me.
I felt my face heating up and looked down on my notebook, playing with my ballpoint.

Connor Lachance saw everything and smirked to himself. This is gonna be interesting.